Notes for  3 July 2026

Elizabeth says: Mary, the One Who Believed, is already blessed, that is, happy, because what was promised to Her will certainly be fulfilled. Usually things are different with us. Well, suppose my boss promised to raise my salary; I would hardly feel happy until I received it! And if, while I am waiting for that joy, someone starts congratulating me, I will knock on wood and spit three times over my left shoulder...

And Mary? "My soul magnifies the Lord!" She is truly happy. This is what Christ brings into this world. He has not yet been born; only a few days have passed since His conception, but all who learn of Him are filled with joy and praise.

Why, then, do we not enter into this joy, or why do we lose it so easily? Unlike Elizabeth and Mary, we already know everything that He has done, and He Himself is constantly with us. Perhaps we simply cannot be called "those who believed"?

The parable of the sower is undoubtedly a parable about the Kingdom and about people who enter the Kingdom or try to enter it. It is also about witness and witnesses. Only the sowing takes place rather strangely: some falls by the road, some on dry ground, as if the sower works without looking where the seed flies. Yes, at first glance this is strange; but if one thinks about it, it cannot be otherwise. Indeed, does a witness always choose to whom he bears witness? Of course, a true witness is led by God, who indicates to him where, when, to whom, and what to say. But witness often sounds quite broadly: very different people gather to listen to the witness, and no one can be denied the right to hear it. In such a situation some seeds will inevitably fall into soil that is not best suited for them.

Yet the matter is not only, it seems, in the features of witness. The matter is above all in the very nature of the Kingdom, in how it enters our world, transforming it. The breath of the Kingdom touches very different people, and the response to this touch can be extremely varied, from complete ignoring to full acceptance. Some, of course, simply do not notice the breath of the Kingdom, but even those who notice it are not necessarily glad of it. For in a certain sense it is not selective: it often touches many at once, as happened, for example, on the day of Pentecost, when all those gathered in the room sensed it, and then all who were on the street before the house and heard the apostles' preaching. Not everyone who heard the preaching and sensed the breath of the Kingdom then turned, although, judging by the witness of the Book of Acts, there were many such people.

And if the breath of the Kingdom so often touches those who do not expect it, simply because the Kingdom enters our transforming but not yet transformed world, how else is a witness to act? He can only sow the seeds of the Kingdom, as the sower in the Savior's parable sows them. For when the time of harvest comes, the field itself will also be transformed, so that no seeds will be lost.

In today's reading the apostle Paul answers everyone who, out of false modesty, claims that in the Church he is a small and out-of-place person, worthy of nothing, and in general just happened to be passing by. He says: "You are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household." Nothing less: fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household! Is it pleasing to Him, then, that we refuse such an honor?

But this can be looked at from another side as well: it is an enormous responsibility to remember that our citizenship is in the Kingdom of Heaven... And refusal of "such an undeserved privilege" in fact means refusal of responsibility. Paul calls us to accept this responsibility with gratitude and humility.

Today's reading continues the theme of apostasy and punishment for it. Clearly, now that the "point of no return" in the relationship between God and His people has been passed, punishment becomes inevitable. But this punishment turns out not to be quite what we are used to imagining. Strictly speaking, God does not punish His people directly. He simply leaves them alone with the consequences of their own sins (vv. 36-43).

In a certain sense one could say that the warnings God sent to the people (v. 27) had the same character; but then God had not yet left them for good, He had only let them feel the weight of the possible consequences of the sin committed. Now these consequences crash down on the people in full measure. It would seem that such permission can well be considered genuine punishment. But in this case one should speak rather not of punishment, but of a kind of shock therapy, and in a certain sense a forced one.

Indeed, before the situation became what today's passage describes, the people had in essence already managed to break all the relationships that bound them to God. And without such relationships the possibilities for God's intervention in the situation become extremely limited, since He takes the free will of the people He created, and of whole nations as well, with complete seriousness. If the people say a decisive "no" to God, He also treats that "no" with complete seriousness. He will not play at freedom of choice: He truly gives this freedom to each person, while at the same time placing on each the fullness of responsibility for the choice made.

Of course, He could at any moment end the game, stop the experiment, intervene in the situation without regard for anyone's choice. But the point is that for God freedom is not a game and not an experiment, but an absolute reality. Meanwhile fallen man at times would perhaps like it to be a kind of game, so that if something happens everything could be started over. But God gives a person, and sometimes an entire people, such a chance only in one case: in the case of repentance and conversion.

And from His people He waits precisely for such repentance and conversion, in order to give them the opportunity to begin everything from the beginning (vv. 60-63). But this will not be a repetition of the former history; it will be a new stage of it. What was cannot be brought back, and the memory of committed sins is not erased without a trace (v. 63). Only when the Kingdom enters the world and is revealed in all its fullness, transforming everything, will sin disappear forever, and even its memory be wiped away.

The healing of the court official's son was the first in the series of healings performed by Christ, and without taking this into account we cannot assess the faith of the boy's father, bordering on prophetic insight. The Capernaum official risked turning to Jesus with a request for healing when no one yet knew whether He was capable of such a thing.

The words addressed to the official sound severe and accusatory, for he has to listen to a reproach for wanting to see a spectacular sight. One could say that the official received this rebuke undeservedly, if we did not know that Jesus, who sees what is in each heart, accuses no one unjustly. He comes to help wherever there is real need, and He immediately helped the official as well; but Christ warns both him and all those around him, and therefore us, that the pursuit of miracles and signs is inadmissible. Recognition of the reality of the spiritual world, which is partly opened through miracles, can become an important step on the path to God, but the pursuit of miracles must not obscure the Giver of miracles.

The Israelites from the tribes of Reuben and Gad have the opportunity to receive their inheritances even before Israel's invasion of Canaan. But the promised land is more important than life's conveniences, and therefore they agree first to help their brothers conquer the land for the whole people. Perhaps we should learn from them the ability to sacrifice temporary conveniences for the sake of preserving brotherly relationships with our neighbors.